It happened so fast I almost got a whiplash.
The President:
“Jay has become one of my closest friends and is a great press secretary and a great adviser. He has good judgement, good temperament and he’s got a good heart. I’m gonna miss him a lot.”
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In case you missed it, last week, Wheel of Fortune’s Pat Sajak waded into the political arena again and took a quick swipe against environmentalists and climate change believers, calling them”unpatriotic.”
You just knew his unannounced trip into the lion’s den of politics was not going to go unchallenged for too long.
Enter the lion himself, Bill Maher:
New rule. Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak, who thinks climate change is a hoax, has to stick to spelling. It’s ironic that Pat’s show is basically a puzzle where all the pieces point to one and only one incontrovertible answer, and yet when that happens with scientific consensus he wants to take another spin. It’s like as if Price is Right host Drew Carey denied the existence of new cars.
Pat, when your grandkids solve the puzzle it will say, ‘Grandad was an idiot.’
The idiot just got his head chewed off!
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The weight of the entire Congress was on his shoulders as both Democrats and Republicans joined the chorus asking for his resignation. It was too much for the head if the Veterans Affairs, and today, president Obama announced that he had accepted Eric Shinseki‘s resignation “with considerable regret.”
Schinseki came under heavy scrutiny over the last few weeks as reports surfaced that some 40 veterans on a medical waiting list, died while trying to get care.
In making the announcement, president Obama tapped Sloan Gibson, the current Deputy of Veterans Affairs, to temporarily take Shinseki’s position as Secretary of Veterans Affairs until the position is permanently filled.
Politically sneaking, the move by Shinseki to step down will he used by Republicans as a knock against Obama, as they are sure to quote the president who said at a press conference last week that “nobody cares more about our veterans than Eric Shinseki.”
Eric Shinseki was nominated as Secretary of the VA by President Obama. The retired four-star general, took office in 2008.
This was taken from a chapter in her upcoming book,”Hard Choices.”
Yes, there are decades old problems at the VA, but over the last few weeks, Republicans have awoken from their deep sleep on these problems and, seeing an opportunity to blame Obama, they have all jumped on the three wheeled bandwagon.
However, in a shameful display of partisan obstruction, the Mitch McConnell led Senate Republicans a blocked a bill that would have improved veterans benefits.
Senate Republicans blocked the veterans bill by using a procedural maneuver to invoke the 60 vote rule. The final vote to waive the budget point of order failed, 56-41. Only two Republicans (Sen. Dean Heller and Sen. Jerry Moran) joined with Democrats on the vote.
Republicans claimed that they blocked the bill because Majority Leader Harry Reid would not allow an up or down vote on an amendment that would have attached sanctions on Iran to the bill.
Sen. Reid said, “I hope all the veterans groups have witnessed all the contortions the Republicans have done to defeat this bill. Shame on Republicans for bringing base politics into a bill to help veterans.”
TPM reports that former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has agreed to buy the Los Angeles Clippers for a record-breaking $2 billion. Now it’s up to others whether the deal goes through.
Shelly Sterling said in a statement issued late Thursday that she’d signed a binding contract for a sale of theClippers by The Sterling Family Trust to Ballmer in what would be a record deal if approved by the NBA.
Ballmer “will be a terrific owner,” Sterling said, “We have worked for 33 years to build the Clippers into a premier NBA franchise. I am confident that Steve will take the team to new levels of success.”
Reince Priebus also said that the Republicans are going to pick their own moderators for the debates, you know, people who won’t be posing tough questions to the Republican presidential candidates. Questions like what are your plans for the country if you become president?
My only question is, will there be enough people on Fox “News” to “moderate” all these Republican debates?
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Thursday that his party will be more vigilant in 2016 about selecting debate moderators.
Speaking at the Republican Leadership Conference, Priebus name-checked MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and said the days of people like him hosting debates are over.
He also said the party needs to have fewer debates than in previous years.
“How many people here think we need 23 debates?” Priebus said. “Here’s what we’re going to do: we’re going to take this 23-debate traveling circus, and we’re going to pick the moderators.”
Priebus previously threatened to withhold debates from CNN and NBC (MSNBC’s parent network) when they were planning projects based on Hillary Clinton. Both projects were later canceled.
And now, your daily nut-baggery. Today’s episode brought to you by the letters “CRA” and “ZY,” and also by the number “REPUBLICAN PLUMBER!”
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what Joe The Plumber had to say about guns in his recent blog post;
Guns are mostly for hunting down politicians who would actively seek to take your freedoms and liberty away from you. Google “Hitler, Mao, Kim Jung Il, Castro, Stalin” just for starters.
As far as me being nice, cordial, respectful – don’t hurt people’s feelings… bla bla? We tried that and look where it got us?
With a Republican party that say guns should be used “for hunting down politicians,” is it any surprise that the political leaders in that party stay in bed with the gun lobbyists, lighting their cigarettes afterwards and bringing them a sandwich?
According to Joe’s message, you keep the gun debate off the table by not only threatening the leaders politically, you also threaten their lives.
Based on their insistence that guns are sacred, I’ll say that these Republican leaders got Joe’s message loud and clear.
It’s really quite simple, anyone should be able to understand. If there were no wars, then there’ll be no need for the VA. Still, Republicans can’t seem to get this simple logic.
They are constantly pushing for new invasions in new locations, desperately trying to prove to anyone watching that we have the biggest kahunas. Republicans keep whipping it out every chance they get, and they’re the first ones to cry fowl when the VA makes its way into the news cycle.
Well thank God Senator Bernie Sanders gets it and he explains it in a way even the two year old leaders in the Republican party should understand.
“The bottom line here, I would hope that as a country, is that we fully understand the cost of war. And Andrea let me tell you, I think many people do not. We’re not just talking about the thousands of people who died in Iraq and Afghanistan. We’re talking about 200,000 men and women who came home with PTSD and TBI. We’re talking about people who came home without legs, without arms, without hearing, and without eyesight, and if this country stands for anything, what we have got to say is that we are going to provide adequate funding to make sure that every person who is entitled to those healthcare services gets the best healthcare they can and they get it in a timely manner.”
Unfortunately, the two year olds in the Republican party aren’t listening. They’re too busy insisting that President Obama apologize one more time for the history of problems the VA has faced.
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Montel Williams must be auditioning for a job at Fox News and with this performance, Murdock has to be measuring the drapes in Montel new office space.
The former talk show host appeared on Fox News tasked with one thing, to criticize President Obama’s speech at West Point. What apparently ticked off Williams was obviously not what the president said – his message about reducing America’s role in unnecessary wars, thus, saving the lives of troops who will otherwise be injured or even killed for absolutely no reason like many were in Iraq. No, critics like Montel Williams don’t listen to what is actually said. Montel is angry because he thinks the president should have used the occasion to apologize again for what’s happening at the VA.
“The president just promised $5 billion for terrorists around the world?! At West Point?!” Williams said. “Where he could have used the day to say, ‘I’m sorry for the pain that I’ve caused you, the families, and I’m gonna fix it today!’”
Of course, problems at the VA didn’t start when the president was inaugurated some six years ago, but, critics cannot remember past 2008.
Williams continued.
“I’m angry because, you know, we made a promise. When I stood with my hand up proudly, I said, ‘I do solemnly swear and affirm to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and I will bear true faith.’ I went through my oath,” Williams said.
“I told the world I’m willing to put my life on the line and die for you. Now, our guys went over. They left body parts. Some of them never made it back. Some of them are here now and their souls are still there. And we have the audacity to turn our back on them right this second?”
If you listen to this guy bellowing his call of unbelief at this administration, you will easily forget who actually started these wars and who is ending them. And you will forget that it is because of these wars why there are many more veterans now, and why “some left body parts” in the warzone while others “never made it back.”
If you listen to Montel Williams scream about the “audacity” of the president for not apologizing, you might wonder where he was when Bush and Cheney said they have nothing to apologize for, even going as far as saying they would do it all over again. And you might ask yourself why, why is Montell not seeing the true culprits here? That Bush and Cheney lied us into these wars that took the lives of over 4000 troops, wars that took limbs from our fellow Americans and caused tremendous pain and anguish to countless others.
And you might wonder what, what is Montel trying to gain with his faux outburst at this president who is actually ending the wars, bringing our troops home and helping our veterans.
What is he trying to gain? A Montel Williams show on Faux? Hmmmm!
And you might be right!
And this new restriction makes perfect sense. Which is why the gun lobby will fight it to the bloody end.
Just days after a 22-year-old killed six college students and himself near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, state lawmakers are championing legislation that would permit law enforcement officials and private individuals to seek a restraining order from a judge that would keep people with a potential propensity for violence from buying or owning a gun. The process would be similar to the one currently used for restraining orders in cases of domestic violence.
The legislation is being introduced this week in response to the attack on Friday by Elliot O. Rodger, who was able to buy three guns and go on a rampage despite warnings from his family and mental health professionals that he was unstable and possibly dangerous. It is unclear, however, if the measures contained in the bills could have prevented his actions if they had been law.
Although mass shootings have not translated into stricter gun control laws nationally, they have prompted changes on the state level — largely limiting access to guns, but in some cases loosening existing laws, which gun advocates say give people more leeway to arm themselves against criminals. After a mass shooting at a school in Newtown, Conn., Connecticut and New York passed bans on assault rifles and created stricter background checks.
But California, which already has some of the strictest gun control laws in the country, could go even further.
You’ve been doing it wrong all along.
